My Father's Keeper
by Sarah Vaughn
Cooking, in all its complexity, runs in the family.
"Running our own restaurant had always been a quaint little dream. One of our ideas was a sweet little diner called Mom’s, where all the waitresses wore grandma wigs and dresses, had names like Flo and Wilma, and served meals on roller skates. Or perhaps it would be a swanky joint where I would help plan the fusion menu and we’d garner five-star reviews. This place, however, was not even close. This was where grandmothers came after bingo in gaudy floral prints to sip their pink wine, where sleazy middle-aged men started nursing beers at ten in the morning. This would not do."
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Life After Terror: Tijuana, Baja Med and the Gastronomic Renaissance
by Alexis Hodoyan-Gastelum
A tourist destination with an embattled history rediscovers itself, one dish at a time.
"For six million years, the Sea of Cortés and the Pacific Ocean isolated the Baja California Peninsula from the rest of Mexico. It’s too far away from mainland Mexico to be considered “Mexican,” and yet, the proximity to San Diego has not white-washed the city either. Tijuana is Tijuana –period. After church on Sunday, people go out to eat Chinese food or street tacos. Tijuana is more than just a borderland separating the U.S. from the rest of Mexico; it is its own contained universe. "
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The Lime Light
by Jillian Tempesta
A local food truck hits it big.
"The Lime Truck anchors its identity in place, its home state, and it's in your face about it. Their electric green theme embodies the essence of their own incarnation of Southern California: organic and energetic. Their raw ingredients come from local, all-natural suppliers with friendly Californian names like Melissa's Produce, business partnerships that are advertised on the side of the bright truck. " |
We Tried It at Home
by Cleo Tobbi
How to make a living grossing out people on YouTube.
"What they do is take this one type of fish, which is apparently really gross to begin with, and have it rot for about six months and then have it ferment in a can for a year before they sell it. It’s fifty bucks a pop and it’s the worst thing I have ever eaten." |
The Patriots
by Sahar Jahani
A family tries to reinvent itself across two continents and two radically different cultures.
"The transition begins about an hour before the plane descends. A parade of women shuffles to the bathroom, hastily trading in their skirts and dresses for long, loose pants; their t-shirts covered in long, knee-length tunics, usually black or navy blue. In the aisles of the descending plane, as the aircraft makes its final stop, a sea of fluttering designer scarves--beautiful and extravagant Louis Vuittion and Chanel that they’ve bought for the sole purpose of their few months’ stay--appear atop the rows. "
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Airport Reunions
by Emily Villanueva
Losing a father, over and over again.
"My father died right after my first tooth fell out. I would say that we lost him, but the older I get the more I think he lost us. He will never see how I share the same teardrop-shaped eyes and pigeon-toed gait. How his youngest, who entered the world only three months before he left it, looks nothing like either parent, an alien child planted in the womb of a soon-to-be-widow"
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Like Mother, Like Son
by Roshan Khan
A family romance and the inheritance of identity.
"My mother took me along on most of her dates; I think it elevated her fear. I was also the perfect cover. These men were obsessed with her, and I think with me, too. It hailed gifts every time I was with these men. Anything I wanted was easily mine. These material perks were trivial; what mattered were the laughs, the smiles, and the outward appearance of being a happy family for just several hours a week.
I fell in love with each of these men, thinking I was a part of their secret affair."
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Jasreen Gupta
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